Norwich v Ipswich (Sun)
It’s the "Old Farm" Derby this weekend as top-of-the-table Norwich City host rock-bottom Ipswich Town. While the fans mark this out on their calendars nice and early, recent meetings between the sides haven’t proved quite as ferocious as many local derbies, and there is a huge gulf between the sides right now.
Freddie Sears was asked about his thoughts ahead of the game though and replied “We’ll make it as uncomfortable as we can for them, try to uset them and put out game place forward. We’ve got to come out fighting. We can’t go there and expect to outplay Norwich because it’s not going to happen. We’ve got to fight, run and give all we can”. Reading between the lines, the game plan is likely to be more about the physical and less about the football.
This could be enough to buck the trend of fairly tame encounters between the pair, especially given that Peter Bankes has been appointed to keep control, and that usually means one thing! Cards!
Bankes has taken charge of 21 league games this season, showing 103 yellow cards and three reds. He is averaging 52.6 booking points (10 for a yellow, 25 for a red) against an average in the Football League of 35.2pts per game. He’s as stern as they come – he is to the Football League what Mike Dean is to the Premier League in a nutshell.
In his 21 matches, he has shown each team two or more cards in 11 (52%), and each team three or more in five (24%). Put him in the middle of a derby and who knows what he’s capable of. William Hill offer 6/4 that he shows Each Team Over 1 Card (2+ each therefore) and 8/1 that he shows Each Team Over 2 Cards (3+) and the latter looks the stronger bet in this one. With it being a Derby game, we’ll also cover the stretch line – Each Team Over 3 Cards (4+) and hope for a blood bath!
The match is live on Sky Sports.
1pts Each Team Over 1 Card at 6/4 (Hills)
1pt Each Team Over 2 Cards at 8/1 (Hills)
0.5pt Each Team Over 3 Cards at 35/1 (Hills)